In the past, the back strap of a brassiere has been connected via hook-and-eye fasteners in which, on one strap part, at least one and usually a multiplicity of hooks are provided for engagement into eyes correspondingly provided on another part of the strap. For wide straps the hooks and eyes can be provided two or three abreast and to allow adjustability, one of the fastener members, either the hooks or eyes, may be spaced apart along the length of one of the strap portions. Where two or three fastener elements are provided across the width of the strap portion, rows of the elements may be spaced apart in the length of that fastener element.
While hook-and-eye fasteners of this type are convenient for fastening behind the back of the wearer, the nature of the hook caused the hook to press into the back of the wearer when, for example, the wearer might lean back against a supporting surface.
While press-button or snap-type fasteners are also known to couple fabric parts together, a press button being provided on one part with, for example, a mushroom-shaped compressible pin or projection and a receiving member on the other garment but formed with a hole which may be undercut to allow the head of the projection to engage beneath a rim or other formation, such fasteners are difficult to secure behind one's back because of the problem of aligning the pin with the hole and thus have not been successful as brassiere fasteners or the like.
Furthermore, the kind of adjustability and ease of connection afforded by hook-and-eye fasteners is not characteristic of press button or snap-type fasteners.
The aforementioned copending application, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, inter alia provides a fastener system which has characteristics of a press button or snap-type fastener and utilizes disk-shaped male and female halves which are connected by pin-and-eye formations and which, when joined, provide a particularly thin closure which can be separated by pulling apart the male and female fastener halves transversely to the tapes upon which they are provided.
Although this kind of closure represents a major advantage, particularly for back straps of brassieres, it is capable of further improvement.